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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG): YouTube censored by the laws in Brazil!

Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG) and the government of Brazil
had an uncomfortable situation, when the Brazilian court demanded that the
company take down a video from YouTube which showed a mayoral candidate from
Brazil. When Google failed to comply initially, the Brazilian court ordered for
arrest of the president of the Google operations in Brazil. Although Google
finally complied and took down the “offensive” video, the company is still
unhappy about the breach of free expression and free speech which was not
allowed.

The video which caused the tension and the
controversy featured Alcides Bernal, a mayoral candidate for Campo Grande, a
city in Brazil. According to the court, the video had to taken off YouTube
because of the breach of the electoral code from 1965, which stated that campaigns
which insulted the dignity or the decorum of a candidate would not be allowed.
Although this did not quite qualify as a campaign, Google was stiff a little
unnerved by the request from the Brazilian court.

On Tuesday, Flavio Peren, regional electoral court
judge, ruled that as a result of the video offending the laws and the rules, it
had to be removed, because it was contrary to the electoral policies held by
the government in Brazil. When this request was not fulfilled by Google, Peren
ordered for the arrest of the president of Brazil operations of Google, Fabio
Coelho.

Although the police brought Fabio in for
questioning, he was released soon after that, and the video was taken down and
the account which had put up the video was deactivated by Google. The person
who had put up the video had explained that the video was an ironical one, but
the Brazil law-enforcers were not going to take a chance with it. The police,
it is rumored, had been inquisitive about Google’s hesitance to take the video
down, while questioning Coelho.

Brazil and the United States of America are the two
countries which have demanded for such censorship, the most. The two countries,
it is said, have made the maximum number of requests to Google to bring down
certain kinds of content for various intents and purposes.